Lindsay Peat believes a move to Premiership Women's Rugby would benefit Ireland out-half Dannah O’Brien in the long term.
O’Brien started all four games at the 2025 Rugby World Cup, which came to an end for the Irish women with an 18-13 quarter-final defeat to France.
The Carlow native only turns 22 years old next week, but has already amassed 30 Test caps since her debut as an 18-year-old in 2022.
However, she has firmly established herself as Scott Bemand’s first-choice option to run the backline, and will likely be a key player in four years time when Ireland return to the World Cup in Australia.
Seven of Ireland’s World Cup squad are currently based in the PWR, with Aoife Wafer the most recent to confirm a move to Harlequins after this World Cup. Dorothy Wall, who missed out on the tournament due to injury, also plays her club rugby at Exeter Chiefs.
And Peat believes that unless the IRFU change their vision for the All-Ireland League, O’Brien could take her game to the next level by linking up with a Premiership side.
"With age, Dannah will only get better. She'll be like a fine wine," the former Ireland international told the RTE Rugby podcast.
🗣️ "Either all our internationals are back in the AIL... or if that's not the plan, she needs to go to England."@lilypeat11 on whether Dannah O'Brien may benefit from a move to the PWR.
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 17, 2025
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"I’d like to see, either all our internationals are back in the AIL and we make it as strong as we can, or, if that's not the option, she needs to go to England.
"Why does she need to go to England? Because we need her playing under pressure. We need her to make decisions when her kicking game and territory game is taken away from her.
"We need her involved with the likes of [England scrum-half] Mo Hunt. If I was in Gloucester, I'd be holding hands with Mo Hunt and asking her every tactical question I could because she is brilliant at it. That's what her job is.
"Or [England out-half] Holly Aitchison or the Canadian, Alex Tessier was unbelievable as that secondary 10. She's fantastic in her IQ. She's an ex-basketball player.
"So we need her involved and asking questions. And I don't want to take away from the [All-Ireland] league. We had to either work from the top down or the bottom up. We can't fix everything all at once. But that would be my options for Dannah."
The 21-year-old has been playing for the Wolfhounds in the Celtic Challenge, and was the tournament’s top scorer in 2025 with 74 points, but that competition has come under criticism in its short existence, with the two Irish sides dominating and running up big scores against their Welsh and Scottish opponents.
Peat believes more needs to be done to give O’Brien the opportunity to play top quality club games.
"There's huge potential in this player. She has come back time and time again and the pressure on her shoulders and the questions being asked of her.
"She hasn't shied away from it and she's only going to get better. I'm excited to see that, but we need to help her.
"We need to facilitate that. How is Scott [Bemand] going to facilitate that growth for not only Dannah, but this whole team and to improve the decisions they make collectively, individually? And that's going to be his toughest job.
"That's where he needs to look at where he's placing his players, who he's going to get in as his coaching staff and what Test games he's going to get in over the next four years."
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